Carton with reclosable spout



Dec. 31, 1957 w. w. WILSON 2,818,207

' CARTON WITH RECLJOSABLE SPOUT Filed July 6, 1954 zz-v V INVENTOR (Kara Zr/"4071.

ATTORNEY Unite The present invention relates broadly to cartons, and in its specific phases to a cardboard carton having a pouring spout as an integral part of same.

Many efforts have been made to produce cardboard cartons with a pouring spout. The most common of these is the small hinged metal spout used on the end of a round carton of table salt. This construction involves an extra expenditure for the metal spout plus the cutting of a suitable size hole in the end of the carton, the anchoring of the metal spout in such hole, and the sealing of same in closed position. Milk and cream cartons also areprovided with pull up caps or flaps, and more recently with tops to be ripped open to form a pouring spout. Tear back top cartons, and measuring spout cartons have been proposed, as well as squeezable cartons, which are first torn along a perforation, and which form a spout when the carton sides are squeezed, but which spout does not fully close when the squeezing pressure is released. It was a recognition of these problems and difliculties in the carton art and the complete lack of a Wholly satisfactory paperboard carton with tightly reclosable spout suitable for handling and continuous pouring of finely divided materials such as salt, sugar, corn meal, cleaning powders, et cetera, which led to the conception and development of the present invention.

Accordingly among the objects of the present invention is the provision of a carton formed of suitable thickness sheet fibrous material, such as paperboard, and which has a substantially right angled corner extending to the top of the carton and in which corner adjacent the top of the carton there is provided a special form of relatively tightly reclosable pouring spout as an integral portion of the carton.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of an integral pouring spout which is premarked and scored on the carton blank of suitable quality stock so that the ultimate user of a carton formed from same can make a cut on a marked cutting line, and then by pressing on the carton corner below the cut and at an indicated point, a pouring spout will pop out, and upon lifting upward on the tip of this spout it will snap shut and be tightly held in that position.

Another object is to provide for a pouring spout in a carton in one corner edge of same, near the upper end of the carton merely by scoring and printing procedures and without the use of additional spout forming material.

Another object is to provide a paperboard carton with an integral spout adapted to operate on the toggle action principle to hold the spout in fully open position at one extreme or fully closed at the other.

A further object is to provide a paperboard carton with a scout wherein there is no change from current practice in filling, sealing, or the method of handling the goods, so far as the product producer and packager is concerned.

A further object is to provide an automatic or semiautomatic reclosing carton spout such that when same tes atent O tection of the packaged goods from dust, dirt, splashed liquid, insects, or other foreign matter.

A further object is to provide a type of spout wherein the carton producer can rule, score, and print the carton blank so that the spout can be made to snap open and stay open until closing pressure is applied so that same will snap shut, or if desired the ruling angles can be changed sufiiciently that pressure has to be applied to hold the spout open, and when such pressure is released the spout automatically closes.

A further object is to provide a cross rib inside the carton in the toggle action portion of the spout so that in pouring the packaged material it is slightly retarded and has to flow over this cross rib and thus pours more evenly;

A further object is to produce a carton with a reclosable spout such that if such spout is closed and the ultimate consumer accidentally drops the carton to the floor, there will be substantially no loss of the packaged goods or contamination of same.

A still further object is to provide a practical construction of a carton with reclosable spout which is easy to manufacture, of substantially insignificant cost beyond that of the plain carton without a spout, and which is easy and efficient for use by the ultimate consumer.

Still further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear as the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, consists of the reclosable spout means for a carton as hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the annexed drawing and the following description setting forth in detail certain means for carrying out the invention, such disclosed means illustrating, however, but one of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be used.

In the annexed drawing:

Figure 1 shows a plan view of a typical form of the blank of the improved carton before the folding and assembly thereof.

Figure 2 shows an enlarged view of the spout portion of the blank illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows a perspective view of a blank of the type shown in Figure 1 folded and closed, and in which form it would be ready to deliver to the ultimate consumer the pourable goods packaged therein.

Figure 4 shows a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the carton illustrating one way of cutting of the carton to form the upper or lip portion of the pouring spout.

Figure 5 shows a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the carton with the spout in open position and held there by toggle action.

Referring more particularly to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing, it will be noted that the layout of the spout has been indicated diagrammatically and that the various key point junctures of the various cutting, scoring and crease lines have been consecutively numbered from 1 to 6 inclusive in order tofacilitate describing the formation and operation of the spout. The carton blank 7 is provided with the usual side panels 8 and 9, edge panels 10 and 11, upper side flaps 12 and 13, upper end flaps 14 and 15, bottom side flaps 16 and 17, bottom end flaps 18 and 19, and side edge flap 20 with ears 21 and 22. The points of joinder of side panels 8 and 9, edge panels 10 and 11, side edge flap 20, and end flaps 12 to 19 inclusive,,are all outlined with die creases or die-cut scores in conventional manner to facilitate folding andforming the finished carton.

Referring. more particularly to Figure 2, the dashed lines extending from 1 to 5 and 1 to 6 are the lines on a which the ultimate consumer is to cut the corner of the carton, as shown in Figure 4. As a cutting guide to the ultimate consumer, it is preferable to print, die-cut score, or perforate these dashed lines and indicate that they are to be cut, and one convenient way of accomplishing the latter is to place the word cut on each of these lines, for instance as shown in Figure 2. The vertical line 23 is a typical die crease carton edge line between a side panel and an edge panel as is typically shown in Figure 1. The spout 24 is symmetrically formed relative to this vertical line 23 and wherein the spout side edges 45 and 4-6 are preferably die crease lines and wherein the lines 3-5 and 36 are preferably die-cut score lines which form the bottom edges of the pouring lip 25 of the spout 24.

To simplify the forming of the spout by the ultimate consumer of the goods carried by the carton, it is desirable to, in some way, indicate the point at which the user is to press the spout portion after having made the cut as shown in Figure 4, and a very convenient procedure is to print the word press at that point, as is shown in Figure 2.

Various size spout openings are possible with this construction and for convenience these may be referred to as standard, large, small, and narrow. For most purposes, the standard opening is the one to be used and in that case it is normally preferable to make the distance across the spout of the fiat blank, as shown in Figure 2, approximately equal to the width of the edge panel of the carton, a thing which gives very satisfactory resilience to the carton spout in its normal operation. It is also desirable to have the spout near the upper end of the carton to facilitate pouring from a filled carton of pourable material and, for most purposes, a distance of oneeighth to one-fourth inch from the upper end of the carton to juncture l is suitable. ure 2, the distance between junctures 2 and 6 is preferably identical with the distance between junctures 2 and 5, and for convenience of description, this distance will be referred to as the depth of the spout. With the standard spout, the distance from juncture 1 to juncture 2 is also equal to this depth, the distance from juncture 1 to juncture 3 is equal to 1% times the depth, while the distance from juncture i to juncture 4 is equal to 3 times the depth or the height H of the spout. Typical angular dimensions for various size spout openings are given in the following table.

It will be noted that the carton containing the packaged goods of pourable nature is delivered to the ultimate consumer without any openings or breaks into the interior of same. When such consumer is ready to open and use the package of goods, she takes a conventional sharp knife 26 and cuts the carton along the cut lines as typically shown in Figure 4. With the knife still in the cut, she then presses on the point marked press until the vertical line 23 passes behind a plane which includes the lines 45 and 4-6, whereupon the resilience of the adjacent side panel and edge panel in combination with toggle action helps to move the press portion of the spout backward and allows the side and edge panels to retract, while the pouring lip 25 of the spout tips outward as is shown in Figure 5. The knife is then removed Again referring to Fig" and the container is ready for pouring of the contents out over the pouring lip of the spout. When the pouring is completed and it is desired to close the spout, it is only necessary to apply lifting pressure to the under edge of the point or end of the pouring lip 25 until line 23 of the spout 24 passes forward of the plane containing lines 45 and 4-6, whereupon by toggle action and resilience of the carton, the pouring lip 25 of the spout 24 will move back to form a substantially tight fit with the edges of the carton along the cut lines. This spout closing resilience is greatest when the carton is of small size and the carton stock is of good grade and of a thickness of 20 points or even a little heavier. Where a moderate or low resilience situation is present, the lifting pressure to close the spout is continued until the spout is completely closed. At the end of the pouring operation it is accordingly clear that the spout is readily closable to protect the contents of the carton from contamination while at the same time substantially avoiding spillage in the case the package is accidentally dropped.

From the foregoing it will be seen that a novel structure for a carton with unitary spout has been disclosed for attaining the desired ends, but attention is invited to the possibility of making variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth. While, for convenience, the carton has been illustrated in upright position, it is not limited to that position since it can be placed in various positions. The directional terms such as upper, under, bottom, depth, height, vertical, backward, and lifting, are accordingly to be considered as relative only, and not limiting on the construction involved.

Other modes of applying the principle of my invention may be employed instead of those explained, change being made as regards the apparatus herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims or the equivalent of such stated means be employed.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. A carton blank including a series of foldably connected panels with fold creases at their connecting lines to facilitate forming a rectangular carton with closed ends, short and long V-shaped, nested, fold line portions symmetrically straddling a fold line between two of said panels with the outer ends of said V-shaped fold line portions being joined, and an inverted V-portion extending in opposite direction to said first named fold line portions and having its ends joined to said joined outer ends of said V-shaped fold line portions, said inverted V-portion being adapted to be severed along its two sides to form an outwardly inclined V-shaped pouring lip for said spout, the point of intersection of the sides of said inverted V-portion being on said straddled fold line adjacent the carton portion forming one of the closed ends of the finished carton formed from this blank, the maximum width of said spout on each side of the fold crease which it straddles being in the range of approximately one-quarter to one-third of the over-all length of said spout, and the depth of the said short V-shaped fold line portion being approximately one-half of said maximum width of said spout at one side of the fold crease which the spout straddles.

2. A carton blank as set forth in claim 1; wherein the included angle of the short V-shaped fold line portion is in the range of from approximately 108 to and the included angle of the long V-shaped fold line portion is in the range of from approximately 42 to 54.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Dec. 3, 1948 

